It just so happened that for most of my life I've lived in the suburbs.

Once you'd broken through that invisible barrier that separates one person from another, you were connected forever, whether you liked it or not.

I used to describe myself as a comic novelist, but my concerns seem to have darkened over the past few years.

Maybe that's what we look for in the people we love, the spark of unhappiness we think we know how to extinguish.

The interesting part about the writing process is that you can never see all the way to the end, not if something is happening over the course of a year and a half, or two years.

You could say that this book is ripped from the headlines, but that wouldn't be fair. Bret Anthony Johnston's riveting novel picks up where the tabloids leave off, and takes us places even the best journalism can't go. Remember Me Like This is a wise, moving, and troubling novel about family and identity, and a clear-eyed inventory of loss and redemption.

He made me think of all the books I hadn't read, and all the ones I'd read but hadn't fully understood.